Adult acne, what works?

[Lovespolly]

It's almost certainly hormonal but I have reacted badly to contraceptives so I'm not wanting to go back on birth control.

I've been using acnecide (benzoyl peroxide) for 5-6 weeks now and seeing no improvement.

I cut out sugar and massively reduced my dairy intake.

Currently my routine is: tea tree face wash, miscella water to cleanse, benzoyl peroxide and a light moisturiser.

Can you reccomend products that you believe may help?

I have had acne from 12-30 (42 now) and the things that have worked well for me are eating well (plenty of veg, protein, fruit, nuts, eggs), B5 and pure cod liver oil supplements, and treating my skin very kindly. Acne prone skin is actually sensitive skin, so I just use Avene extremely gentle cleanser, an eye cream and nothing else! My skin is now very clear.

and the things that I c

I get headaches with a lot of pills but Eloine was the only one I didn't and completely cleared my acne. I tried all sorts topically to no avail, which is probably to be expected if hormonal.

Roaccutane is working wonders.

I did have to try several other treatments before it was prescribed. They worked at first, including Epiduo, Lymecycline and Spirolactane.

Roaccutane has stopped the grease dead in its tracks.

Blocked pores gone, hair not greasy anymore and hardly any spots.

I am 4 months in. My acne is/was not that bad, just painful and persistent. Dermatologist was happy to prescribe, eventually.

Agree with @Istory do not waste your time with expensive creams, treatments and facials (done all that and got the t-shirt). Had acne since I was a teenager. Was on dianette all through 20s. 30s spent having kids and skin was horrendous - loads of cystic acne.
Go to a dermatologist (I'm SE and it was £250 for the appointment). I was put on Spironolactone (as my acne is hormonal so antibiotics and even Roaccutane are apparently of limited use). Skin is really clear now.

I tried everything for years after suffering with adult acne especially around my mouth area. I was really self conscious and I had some success with Clinique anti blemish and still use their anti blemish foundation. But my biggest advice would be is to go to the gp - I thought mine wasn't serious enough for an appointment but when I went I was given a cream for acne rosacea and honestly it cleared up within a month - and hasn't come back apart from a hormonal spot now and then!!! Honestly I couldn't believe it and it's made such a difference to me

@minipie thank you! Going to place an order, I’ve been thinking about taking this for a while.

Spiro and tret

I've had acne to some degree all my life. Roaccutane was brilliant. Now I find la Roche Posey effaclear wash and moisturiser keeps it generally at bay, and stronger salicylic acid for anything brewing. My spots are cystic. Large, painful and deep. Spot plasters also great to stop me picking

Dermalogica daily micro scrub

I suffered badly with my skin all my life and it got extremely bad in my 40's due to the menopause, Dr put me on roaccutane and although crap side effects my skin was absolutely wonderful for the first time ever 😁 defo recommend it

I had really bad hormonal acne - massive, deep, painful cysts on my chin that would sometimes get infected. For years, Dianette was the only thing that worked - after a few months on it, my skin would be completely clear. But my mood is badly affected by hormones and I hated taking it - so I would regularly stop, only for the acne to return with a vengeance a few months later, so I would give in and go back on Dianette. I was on that merry go round of on Dianette, off Dianette for years.

Finally, my doctor prescribed me the antibiotic, Lymecycline. I honestly didn’t think it would work, but it’s been miraculous! One tablet a day and within a month, my skin was clear. I’ve been taking it for two years now and never even have to think about my skin, and regularly go without makeup, which was unthinkable before! My GP is happy to keep prescribing it and I’m happy to keep taking it because I have no side effects (apart from clear skin ).

@Nydj

Dermalogica daily micro scrub

This is terrible for acne .

Visit Dr Natalia Spierlings . Consultant derm .

If you can't afford that sign up for Dermatica . Prescription strength topicals which will help .

Happy to review your current skin routine too for anything that could be triggering ( I've been through serious rounds of adult acne )

@Lovespolly

Wow so many recommendations, I really appreciate the replies!

I've made a list of everything mentioned here and I'm definitely going to scrap my current routine and start afresh with some of the suggestions here.

I've heard alot about roaccutane and afaik it would only be prescribed if everything else has failed and the acne is severe? I wouldn't say mine is severe (but it's not pleasant nevertheless)

I've just started at a new job and I'm too self conscious to go bare faced, whereas usually I barely wear make-up at all.

I'm prepared to see my GP if I can't get a handle of it myself (fingers crossed I can)

Also you can get roaccutane privately .

Low dose isn't too bad at all .

Epiduo worked wonders for me

I think we need to see acne for what it is. A bacterial infection of the oil glands in your skin and not a poor choice in skincare.

I’ve wasted £1000s over the last 25 years on skincare when I should have taken roaccutane when it was first offered to me.

Dermatica has really helped me. I have adapalene niacinamide and clindamycin. Still get some spots as it is hormonal acne so internal byt the spots I grt are smaller and clear up quickly. Don’t get the monstrous ones that take months to heal anymore.

I don’t want to keep taking the pill or spend £100’s to see a derm and get other medications. I use Paula’s Choice 2% BHA as well and then have invested in lots of hydrating products as I don’t want to dry my skin out. If you can cope with the odd spot still albeit much smaller then Dermatica is the way to go

I started getting spots in my 20s but they were kept at bay by years of Dianette. But after coming off pill (I was getting headaches) cystic acne returned with a vengeance - this time around I tried eliminating diary, sugar etc. and spent a fortune on products. A few years later I finally admitted defeat and went on Roaccutane which worked wonders. It’s really worth considering, it’s pretty much the nearest thing to a cure that there is. I wish now I’d done it sooner and saved myself the bad acne scars. Any advice for getting rid of scars?

Agree with pp about lymecycline, it clears my skin up so quickly. I did find I got stomach cramps when I took it for longer than a couple of weeks though.

Other thing that has really helped my skin has been acid toner from Bravura. I use their first oil cleanser daily, followed by their ginseng toner with glycolic acid. Using that consistently has really improved my face. Unfortunately I still get really bad neck spots though so back on the antibiotics at the moment. Have had some success with differin and benzoyl peroxide but some of the deep spots just won’t be shifted. I do wonder if I’m reacting to something in shampoo and conditioner as when I use the kids child farm stuff my neck improves loads.

@crunchypeanutbutterontoast

I started getting spots in my 20s but they were kept at bay by years of Dianette. But after coming off pill (I was getting headaches) cystic acne returned with a vengeance - this time around I tried eliminating diary, sugar etc. and spent a fortune on products. A few years later I finally admitted defeat and went on Roaccutane which worked wonders. It’s really worth considering, it’s pretty much the nearest thing to a cure that there is. I wish now I’d done it sooner and saved myself the bad acne scars. Any advice for getting rid of scars?

Dermatica and spf 30-50 every single day.

I’m allergic to cows milk, still ended up on roaccutane.

There’s no other bacterial infection we attribute to dairy is there?. No one tells you give it up if you get a chest infection do they?.

Imo Acnecide is a rubbish benzoyl peroxide. Panoxyl worked for me, then they stopped selling it so I moved to Acnecide which did not work. Now I've started the whole Acne.org regimen again using their own BP which you can get from UK sellers on eBay (expensive but huge tube lasts for a good while) with cetaphil cleanser and oil free moisturiser and have seen a huge improvement in a few weeks.

Also, really recommend a silk pillowcase - completely stopped my terrible hormonal spots on my chin/jaw line.

Good luck!

Agree with others who've said not to bother with expensive cleansers and creams. Just go to your GP. FWIW I've found female GPsfar more sympathetic. I've been on lymcycline and differin gel which together are the bees knees for cystic acne

@IndieRo what happened after you came off Dianette? Did the acne return?

@readingismycardio, no the acne never returned and have never had a problem with my skin since and that was about 15 years ago.

@IndieRo i m about to come off dianette and I'm shit scared. So your skin stayed like that?! Did your menstruation come back quick?

Roaccutane worked for me. Deep, painful cystic acne. Nothing else worked at all.

Imho if it’s cystic acne no amount of different products, either avoiding or trying them, will make the slightest bit of difference.

Now I only have a tendency, 10+ years after Roaccutane, to get one or maximum two lumpy hormonal spots each month. Nothing like cystic acne but a big lumpy spot with no head that takes days to go. I find I can keep these at bay by reducing dairy. Again, nothing else makes any difference.

Reducing dairy would not however have made the slightest difference when I had cystic acne. I would get a new massive lump each day and each would take weeks to flatten (and would leave red marks from skin being stretched). God it was miserable. Only Roaccutane touched it. But it really did work, within weeks I was (and stayed) acne free.